Guilty pleasure poetry

The lovely James Webster, who came to read at our last two events, has posted a review of our November reading! You can find it here with a summary of each reader (what a memory!) He says some rather sweet things:

There’s something wonderfully quaint about Claire Trévien’s Beaconsfield based poetry night. Maybe it’s the gorgeous surroundings of the Royal Standard of England (oldest alehouse in England apparently) with its warren of low-ceilinged rooms. Maybe it’s the charmingly mixed audience, comprising all different ages and a mix of locals and visitors. Maybe it’s Claire’s glittering hosting. It’s a very relaxed, supportive and fun environment in which to enjoy some poetry.

Summary: a fun, welcoming and moving night, with plenty of different voices, in a warm and inviting venue. If you feel like venturing out to the sticks for some poetry, definitely check it out.

A reminder: our next two events are on 24th and 30th April, and you can find more details below.

And! As if that weren’t enough, the fantastic Tori Truslow will be giving a workshop on Sunday 29th April, 2-4pm in the Reading Room, Old Beaconsfield. All ages and abilities are welcome and you should emerge from the session with a brand new piece of poetry you can share (should you dare!) at the open mic the following night. Booking for this event will open soon.

April will be a fruitful month for poetry, with not one but TWO excellent poetry events happening in Beaconsfield and its surroundings…

Our next evening of featured poets & open mic will be at the wonderful Jolly Cricketers, in Seer Green, Beaconsfield. As you can see from the picture, our next loose theme for this next event will be ‘Maps’. You can share poetry you’ve written on the theme, or ignore it altogether.

Our featured poets are: Jim Bennett, Amy Key, Jonathan Steffen and Christine Webb. Posts in the lead up to the event will appear on this website with more information on these poets.

To put you in the mood, here is a poem by Elizabeth Bishop ‘The Map’:

The Map

Land lies in water; it is shadowed green.
Shadows, or are they shallows, at its edges
showing the line of long sea-weeded ledges
where weeds hang to the simple blue from green.
Or does the land lean down to lift the sea from under,
drawing it unperturbed around itself?
Along the fine tan sandy shelf
is the land tugging at the sea from under?

The shadow of Newfoundland lies flat and still.
Labrador’s yellow, where the moony Eskimo
has oiled it. We can stroke these lovely bays,
under a glass as if they were expected to blossom,
or as if to provide a clean cage for invisible fish.
The names of seashore towns run out to sea,
the names of cities cross the neighboring mountains
-the printer here experiencing the same excitement
as when emotion too far exceeds its cause.
These peninsulas take the water between thumb and finger
like women feeling for the smoothness of yard-goods.

Mapped waters are more quiet than the land is,
lending the land their waves’ own conformation:
and Norway’s hare runs south in agitation,
profiles investigate the sea, where land is.
Are they assigned, or can the countries pick their colors?
-What suits the character or the native waters best.
Topography displays no favorites; North’s as near as West.
More delicate than the historians’ are the map-makers’ colors.

The four readers will be: Chris Hamilton-Emery (editor of Salt Publishing, author of The Departure), Tim Dooley (author of Keeping Time), Liane Strauss (author of Leaving Eden) and Claire Trévien (author of Low-Tide Lottery). The readings will be followed by a Q&A where you will be able to ask any burning questions you have about poetry publishing, the writing process, and anything else.

The event will be free but please RSVP so that we have an idea of numbers.

More news will be coming soon on the date and place of our next poetry & open mic event.

As a special treat we have two extra poets coming to perform at the Royal Standard tomorrow, here’s a little taster of what you can expect:

Paul Askew writes and performs poetry, as well as editing Ferment zine. He has a BA(Hons) in English Studies, so he’s like, you know, totally legit and that. He’s inflicted his imagination upon people in Oxford, London, Edinburgh and at Truck Festival.

2010 Oxford Hammer and Tongue Slam Champion, Tina Sederholm is a poetry tart who loves both performance and the more literary side of poetry. Now the co-host of Oxford Hammer and Tongue, her favourite m.o. is to massage the status quo into a false sense of security and then deliver a deft kick to its testicles while it isn’t looking. If she had a philosophy it would be ‘Somehow, everything is okay.’

Mark Waldron’s first book, The Brand New Dark was published by Salt in 2008, his second, The Itchy Sea in September of last year.

What others have said about Mark Waldron

‘This is urgent, thought-provoking poetry – one of the most important debuts for a long time.’ — Clare Pollard, Magma

‘Mark Waldron is the most striking and unusual new voice to have emerged in British poetry for some time.’ –John Stammers

‘The Itchy Sea is the abstract film caught on TV at 3am or the obscure album that rewards repeated listens or the beautiful, nightmarish art installation you can’t shake from your mind. It is, in short, my poetry highlight of the year.’ —Matthew Haigh

Lucy accidentally moved to Oxford a few years ago. She now runs the Oxford branch of Hammer and Tongue there with Tina [Sederholm, who is also reading on 11th!] She goes about performing poems at arts nights and festivals around the country, and is working on her first solo show, which will be touring later this year. Lucy blogs about her misadventures here (http://lucyinthepubwithcider.tumblr.com/). You can also follow her on twitter at @lucyayrton

Lily Morris, from Beaconsfield, was one of ten national winners in the Poetry Society’s ‘SLAMbassadors‘ competition in 2010 after her poem, ‘Passport’, which was written in a slam poetry workshop at school, was chosen by Adisa the Verbaliser and Joelle Taylor. She usually likes to write in free verse, and is according to Joelle Taylor ‘the world’s worst emcee’.

Mark Burnhope was born in 1982 and currently lives in Bournemouth, Dorset. His poems and reviews have appeared in print and online publications including Magma, Horizon Review, Nth Position,Stride and The Best British Poetry 2011 (Salt). His debut pamphlet, The Snowboy is available from Salt Publishing.

He blogs here where you can find links to reviews, news and interviews.

What others have said of The Snowboy

‘I’m very rarely excited and interested by new books of poetry, being a curmudgeonly sort. But there’s something in Burnhope’s debut which makes me hope he isn’t easily satisfied by what he’s got here. Because if he is, he will have thrown away his chance to be a truly excellent poet.’ –Jane Holland, Raw Light

‘Burnhope’s poems are compressed and take a little work, but reward it. This is a poet who can make his local landscape sing, and who can express grief for a failed marriage, and a child lost to miscarriage, in ways that feel both personal and universal.’ –Marcia Menter, Sphinx